After Port Fairy we rolled into a new month and a new state, South Australia. It was time to slow down for a while and settle in for a six night stay… and where better for that than the small port town of Robe. Robe is a very pretty little town with magnificent beaches and coastal scenery.
The weather was still being somewhat unkind to us with every day forecast for rain although not heavy. Ultimately the weather was quite strange in that we’d get a shower then clear blue sky and sun, then drizzle, then overcast, then sun… It was a case of, “If you don’t like the weather then just wait five minutes.”
We settled the van in at the Robe Holiday Park ( a KUI park), which was on the edge of town but only a short walk to the beach and Coastal Walk. Lots of lush, green grass with big sites to stretch out in and brand new ensuite style amenities and camp kitchen area. Unfortunately the weather kept us, once again, from spending much time relaxing outside. We also had some very blustery nights which resulted in the annoying but unavoidable consequences of parking the van underneath a flowering gum tree sporting thousands of gum nuts… “Thunk…roll, roll, roll, roll… Thunk…roll, roll, roll, roll… Thunk, thunk… roll, roll, thunk, roll, roll, roll, roll…” A small price to pay for an otherwise pleasant place to stay.
Apart from being a picture postcard town, Robe oozes historic appeal due to the many limestone block buildings but old and new. The standout building is the Customs House building, which is heritage listed and stands on a small rise overlooking the sea. Heading back down into town there’s a number of cafes, eateries and the Caledonian Inn, which is also a beautiful stone building that is home to a cozy bar and bistro restaurant.
We visited all of the tourist spots in Robe including The Obelisk, a navigation aid for ships, and the Robe Lighthouse, built in 1973 in a much more contemporary style than other lighthouses along the southern australian coastline.
In between bouts of rain and sunshine we also visited the Beacon Hill Lookout, a round stone tower that you can climb up to see a panoramic view of the Robe coastline and surrounds. Also the ruins of the Robe gaol.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit Transmutation, a gallery business that specialises in recycling junk into usable products. They’re most noted for turning bread bag tags into bowls, plates, pens and door knobs. They did however have a large fish sculpture outside that shop that gave us an idea of their unique style of recycling.
The Robe Town Brewery is a small boutique brewery in Robe’s small industrial estate area operating in a large shed that houses the brewery in the back half and a bar lounge area in the front half. They have live music on Friday afternoon/evening so we setlled in for a few drinks and listened to a very good singer with accoustic guitar doing covers and some of his own original music. The brewery’s porter and stout were very good and perfect for a cold, drizzly evening.
Pub night in Robe was the heritage listed Caledonian Inn, which coincidentally was the same name as our previous pub night in Port Fairy. Our last night in Robe was Wednesday, which happened to be ‘roast night’ in the Robe Caledonian Inn so Rob went for the roast while Jo a proscuitto wrapped chicken. Both meals were superb with the roast being a ‘chefy’ version of roast beef on top of a bed of roast vege’s with properly made quality jus to complement it. It paired beautifully with a glass of the local Cape Jaffa shiraz.
New Caravan Issue
Back in Port Fairy we were made aware of an issue with the Swift 500 series gas cooker, which we have in our van. The Swift 500 series cooker is used in mnay different caravan brands, not just Supreme. In any case there were two report of serious incidents in Western Australia where a temporary ban on sale and use was put in place.
Whilst in Robe we were advised that the ban has been placed across all of Australia until Swift come up with a solution for the problem and do a recall. The upshot is that we have to switch off the gas to the cooker using the isolation tap. Until then we can still use the electric hotplate but not the three gas burners, oven or grill.
It’s a bit frustrating but luckily we invested in an air fryer before we left and also have our thermal cooker for soups and stews. Our Weber BabyQ can still be used as well but the weather isn’t terribly condusive to outdoor cooking…
Hopefully there’ll be a fix available before we get to Adelaide in three weeks time and get the van serviced…
Next stop… Tailem Bend.
Coastal Walk
One the really great things about Robe is the Coastal Walk that takes you along the top of the coastal dunes and bluffs and along the beaches that surround Robe. We were able to join the track directly across the road from the caravan park. Our starting point took us through some scrubland along the edge of a saltwater lake to The Outlet, which is a small tidal break in the dune that can be crossed via footbridge.
Turning left you follow the dune and head towards Hooper Beach and Town Beach a bit further along. All in all it’s about 3km along the Coastal Walk into the town with a number of scenic viewing points and memorial bench seats from which to take in the vista.
Turning right at The Outlet takes you back to a residential area and the long sweeping curve of Long Beach that stretches away to Cape Jaffa in the distance on the horizon. We did both directions on different days during breaks in the rain when the sun and some blue sky made an appearance. Like a lot of the southern Australian coastline, the Robe coastline does look equally beautiful when the wind is blowing and the sky is heavy even if you don’t get to see the stunning aqua blue ocean when the sun is out and the sky is deep blue.
Coastal Drive
On the other side of town you can drive around another part of the Coastal Walk to take in the various lookout and viewing spots including the Obelisk, Lighthouse and the natural formations of Archway Rock and Doorway Rock.
Doorway Rock is a natural rock formation that has two major openings cut through it from relentless erosion by the ocean. Archway Rock is a similar formation but attached to the cliff looking out towards Doorway Rock.
The whole coastal area around Robe is quite stunning and the beaches are a curious mix of roughly eroded limestone and smooth sand stretches of shallow but evenly breaking waves.
Since the weather was somewhat unpredictable we chose an overcast day to take a drive up to Kingston SE, another coastal town north of Robe. The SE stands for South East in order to distinguish it from Kingston-On-Murray. It sits on Lacepede Bay at the southern end of The Coorong.
Whilst not quite a pretty as Robe, Kingston SE has its own charms and is mostly one long row of houses and shops stretching for kilometres along the frontal dune. It is also very flat. There are two standout features in Kingston SE; the Lighthouse and the Big Lobster… The Kingston SE Lighthouse is a different and distinctive design that is different from the contemporary Robe Lighhouse and the more conventional round, white, block lighthouses elsewhere. There is a large round bottom level with open steel framework housing a central access shaft to the lighthouse area at the top.
The Big Lobster, as far as ‘big things’ go is also quite distinctive, well maintained and highly detailed with regard to it’s construction. It’s really just a large sculpture fronting a service station but makes an interesting presence as you leave the town going north. There’s also a tractor museum close by with a tractor mounted atop a pole. We decided not to visit this as we’ve seen quite a few machinery exhibits over the last few years.
Not far from the Big Lobster is the Kingston Sundial of Human Involvement. It is set on a small island in the Maria Creek outlet that uses your body to tell the time. Unfortunately it was drizzling at the time we were there so accuracy a bit problematic. It’s still a nice sculptural piece, that also includes a seal sculpture as well.
Cape Jaffa
Heading back to Robe we took brief detour via Cape Jaffa, which gave us chance to stop by Cape Jaffa Wines. The vineyard is set on the slopes rising up to the tasting room that is a a tasteful mix of contemporary and rustic design based on limestone blocks with a large wooden deck area overlooking the vines.
The inside is a cosy atmosphere with wine barrel tables and a corner bar. The back wall is a glazed wall that provides a gallery view of the barrel storage area while you taste their wines. Cape Jaffa Wines has a decent scorecard of wines including a number of biodynamic wines that use no additiives as well as some natural farming techniques such as grazing sheep around the vines, harvesting in accordance with moon-cycles and burying a cow’s horn in each row of vines.
We opted for a five label tasting that included their:
All were very drinkable and we ended up buying a bottle of the ‘Mesmer Eyes’ and the ‘Epic Drop’; both of which were very drinkable and we’re sure will be a pleasant memory of the region as we push forward into South Australia and the renowned Barossa region.
